Herald Blogs

BY JUAN CARLOS PÉREZ-DUTHIE

Whether it’s castanets, polka-dot dresses or the dour faces as dancers stomp their feet, there are certain elements that have always been associated with flamenco dance and music. But especially in a contemporary context, flamenco can be surprisingly rich, complex and more varied than those traditional clichés.

South Florida audiences will have the opportunity to discover as much when three Spanish artists bring to the United States for the first time their new piece, ToCaBa, during the fifth season of Out in the Tropics, an annual gay-and-lesbian-oriented performance festival presented by Miami’s FUNDarte, which runs Thursday through Sunday.

“Without abandoning the essence of what flamenco is, ToCaBa takes flamenco’s traditional manifestations in dance, music and song, deconstructs them a bit, and presents a more revolutionary vision of this art form,” says Ever Chávez, executive director and founder of FUNDarte.

“It plays a bit with gender as well, and that’s why we decided to program it as part of Out in the Tropics, which features artists from the GLBTQ community, or works that have that sensibility,” says the Cuban producer and promoter.

This year’s honorees: Craig Smith, president of Source Events, a South Florida travel company for the LGBT community, became businessman of the year; Office Depot Foundation, Business of the Year; and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Nonprofit of the Year.

The film tackles the all too often misunderstood world of transgender. Although Just Gender utilizes some archival footage and stills, it is largely built on a series of original footage and interviews of transgendered persons, their family members and friends, health care experts, community leaders and others who work with the transgender community. The film explores the common myths and misunderstandings about transgendered people. It also explores the confusion between sexual orientation and gender identity, as reflected in the rigid binary view of the world generally held by society. Just Gender also touches on the discrimination, hardships and brutality resulting from those misconceptions and prejudices, including the numerous deaths caused by hate each year.

Nearly four years ago, I interviewed Ultra Violet when she was in Miami Beach during Art Basel for the opening of a gallery featuring the works of photographer William John Kennedy, who frequently photographed Warhol.

Here is my 2010 interview with Ultra Violet:

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BY STEVE ROTHAUS

Ultra Violet, the Andy Warhol "superstar'' internationally known in the 1960s, demands more than her 15 minutes of fame.

"Today with the explosion of the media, the Internet, everybody has 15 minutes of fame. I'm trying to get 16 minutes, and it's very hard," she says. "Everybody has a camera, everybody has Facebook, everybody has a computer. If you can tell me how to get one more minute, let me know."

Ultra Violet -- born Isabelle Collin Dufresne 75 years ago in France -- is here from New York for Art Basel, showing off her own works and helping launch a KIWI Gallery retrospective of photographer William John Kennedy, who long ago captured images of UV, Warhol and Robert Indiana, whose iconic LOVE poster became a symbol of the '60s Pop Art movement.

"Her hair was weird: black rattail in the back, white on the top. It was a synthetic nylon wig. And that person, which I thought was a woman had a very strange voice," Ultra Violet recalls. "Anyway, Dalí introduced me, and he said, `This is Andy Warhol.'

"He was totally unknown then. Warhol said to me, `You are so beautiful, let's do a movie together.' I said when? He said tomorrow. Tomorrow, the next day, I went to The Factory [Warhol's New York studio], and this was the beginning of a very interesting era."

Among the photos on display at the KIWI Gallery off Lincoln Road: a series of Ultra Violet nudes shot by Kennedy almost a half-century ago.

"I have no regrets," she now says. "But this was the '60s and in the '60s everybody got undressed. In 2010, you do not get undressed. Not the right people. We were the right people."

UV says that during the sexual revolution, "the clothes would just fall off."

"But you know I'm a born-again Christian now and I don't take my clothes off," she adds.

Actually, UV wasn't totally nude in Kennedy's portraits. "I didn't want to be completely naked," she confides. "I needed something, so I [wore] one of his ties."

Kennedy, 80, now of Miami Beach, says this is the first major exhibition of his work.

His photographs are displayed full frame.

"I crop through the lens, every picture I took," Kennedy says. "I believe in having an idea in advance. If it's a fertile idea, it will grow on its own as you shoot."

The Miami Herald's much-talked-about documentary, The Day It Snowed In Miami, will air again 8 p.m. Thursday on co-presenter WPBT Channel 2.

The feature-length film directed by Joe Cardona traces the political battle lines drawn in Miami in 1977 when gays sought approval of a then controversial Human Rights Ordinance, which guaranteed they would not be discriminated because of their “affectional or sexual preference.”

On what would be Judy Garland’s 92nd birthday Tuesday, New York theater and cabaret publicist Dan Fortune announces he is producing a "Night of A Thousand Judys” art auction benefiting Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBT youth.

This year’s auction accompanies an all-star concert to be held June 16 in Manhattan.

“For the second year, we have asked visual artists from different mediums to create and donate an original interpretation of Judy Garland. The works will be sold via silent auction at the event and all proceeds will go directly to the Ali Forney Center,” Fortune says. The online auction is now live.

More from Fortune:

Participants this year include Robert Risko, the longtime Vanity Fair illustrator, Olympia Zagnoli from The New York Times and Samantha Hahn, creator of Well Read Women, in addition to a custom Judy t-shirt by Deer Dana, whose pieces have been worn by Jay-Z and been featured in Vogue, Fader, Elle and more (www.deerdana.com).

Last year’s auction included custom-made pieces by Tommy Tune, Charles Busch, and Robert W. Richards, in addition to rising talent in the art world.

Last June’s event raised over $20,000 and we’re trying to double that number for 2014. The 2013 show was called “a rambunctious, uproarious, unpredictable all-star concert” by The Wall Street Journal and 2012’s was praised as “stupendous, extraordinary and hilarious” by The Village Voice.

BY STEVE ROTHAUS

Three classic MGM films, one celebrating its 75th anniversary and two CinemaScope musicals from 1955, have recently been rejuvenated in high definition.

The Women – with its all-star, all female 1939 cast – features Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell.

Despite no men in the picture, director George Cukor's adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce's Broadway hit is known for its razor-sharp dialogue:

“There is a name for you, ladies, but it isn't used in high society... outside of a kennel.”

“I've had two years to grow claws mother. Jungle red.”

The Blu-ray picture is as sharp as the dialogue. The Women, released the same year as other MGM films including The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, is black and white with a restored Technicolor fashion show sequence. Warner Home Entertainment, $20.